C06

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5 responses to “C06”

“The audience is silent for a few seconds, as if they collectively forgot exhale, but then we all realize that she is done and break into a frenzy of applause” This quote from chapter was significant to me because I remember all the times when I have been in the audience. I remember all the times watching my friends perform and be nerve racked hoping they didnt miss any lines or screw up. Elena was going through same things in the story with her sister having her big performance. The real significance of the quote is the after effects of a really good performance. The sound of hundreds of people clapping their hands off must make the performers think that all the hard work was worth it. That is how that passage spoke to me.

“She takes a breath and soars to the final roulade, my mother clasping her hands around the chair arms, my fingernails driven into the skin of my palms so deep they hurt.”

I can feel the excitement building up in them. This is the sort of the excitement you experience at a football game. I can relate to this, because I acted this way today. I was watching the Lion’s game when it was in overtime. I was on the edge of my seat. I was drawn into the game, nothing else around me mattered. I imagine that Elena and her mother felt the same way. They seemed to be watching Marina’s performance with so much intensity

In Chapter 6, there was a quote that made me laugh since it still happens in today’s society. It is describing the test that the author’s sister had to complete in order to graduate her drama schooling. “Marina has to demonstrate everything she has learned in four years. I’m not sure if it is fair to judge four years of schoolwork by an hour-and-a-half vaudeville, but these are the rules of drama school and, I begin to suspect, of all schools.” This reminded me of all of the statewide testing I had to do back in elementary, middle, and even in high school. I have always thought of myself as a strong test taker, but I do feel bad for people who are not great test takers. The ones who know the material, but just can’t bring it together for one test, they’re the ones I am talking about.
Now I am not sure on how you would be able to change this, but there has to be some other way. This has been the way we have done it since the days of the Soviet Union and beyond. So why can’t we just put our brains together and think of another way to show knowledge of a subject without the stress and fear of the written test.

In chapter 6, Elena says “I press my fongernails into the palms of my hands and in my mind call Marina all the curse words i know because this is what you are suppossed to do if you want them to have good luck.”

– This was really wierd for me to hear, just because I’ve never heard of this before. I’ve never heard anything like it before. Here we do the opposite, we think as positive as possible for them as we wish them the best of luck. I guess its a cultural thing. I wonder if they still do the same thing in Russia.

I thought that it was interesting that a performance was used as a final exam. I guess that it makes sense for the type of school. I can only imagine the pressure that she was under. I also thought that it was interesting that calling someone by curse words would bring them luck. I have never heard of such a concept. I was amazed by the amount of time that the mother had to stand in line to get cotton balls. That must have been the effect of the communist system.